Kelvin opened his eyes with a start, his chest weighed down by an invisible burden. The room around him was plunged into thick darkness, but it wasn't the mere absence of light that terrified him. Something indefinable slid along the walls, a shifting shadow, black as ink, that seemed to suck in every ray of light.
He blinked, trying to dispel the illusion. It was only a nightmare, he told himself. But the icy cold that crept through his limbs whispered otherwise.
For several weeks, the world had changed. What men thought to be locked inside their minds, in the darkness of night, was taking shape before their terrified eyes. Psychological nightmares escaped from their souls, becoming invisible or barely visible monsters, whispers that gnawed at reason. Sinister shadows clung to people, revealing their deepest fears.
Kelvin sat up, breath short. The shadow seemed intent on clinging to him, infiltrating his mind, devouring his thoughts. He clenched his fists, trying to regain control.
"This isn't real," he whispered softly.
But the voice that answered him was a hissing breath, a whisper resonating in his skull: "You can't run…"
The faint lights in the room flickered, and the shadow drew closer, forming a shapeless figure with shifting contours, made of black void and flashes of darkness. Kelvin felt a cold shiver run down his spine, a shiver not caused solely by fear but by a terrible truth: this thing, this nightmare, was not just a hallucination.
It was a presence, a part of himself, that he could not ignore.
He stumbled out of his room, seeking the daylight. In the street, the whispers had already begun. Passersby looked at him with evasive eyes, some stepping back, as if they too saw the shadows clinging to bodies.
The world had become a mental prison, a theater where every dark thought manifested. Nightmares were no longer confined to minds; they had crossed the barrier of dreams and crept into reality.
Kelvin knew one thing: he could no longer ignore these shadows. If he didn't face them, he would be devoured.